By Rajan Hoole –
Dr. Rajan Hoole
Rains and early gloom harbinger the dying year. Fields are ploughed and sown in readiness for the earth’s renewal and the yield of her bounty. It was at such a time that Rajani Thiranagama was killed by the LTTE twenty-nine years ago. Her questions and aphorisms often challenged our assumptions at their core. The following Appeal authored by her in October 1988 appeared in Laying Aside Illusions signed by 50 academics in the common room of the University of Jaffna:
“We have to examine not only our relations with the Indian and Sri Lankan States, but also ourselves. Our obeisance to terror within the community, our opportunism and lack of principles in the face of many internal killings, have made it easy for external forces to use the same weapons to control us. In the face of our acquiescence to anti-democratic tendencies within the community, our plea for democracy becomes a meaningless exercise. Many individuals and young persons who voiced criticism of the political forces have been victimised, driven away, or killed while we looked on.”
Displayed in that very common room are photographs of our late academics since the inception of the University. The exclusion of Rajani’s picture has been commented upon by visitors for many years. The university authorities in 2014 (I think in retrospect it is wrong to single out the Vice Chancellor) blocked the observance of the 25th Anniversary of her murder while in harness. Her conducting examinations to a timetable made it easy for the killers to plan her murder.
Rajani
A short stroll away from the common room, the 31st Anniversary of the LTTE’s Thileepan, whose ‘Gandhian’ fast to death under duress, to enable the Leader to snatch a political prize, was, this fall, celebrated as act of martyrdom in a grand ceremony; where the Vice Chancellor gave the lead. A few days later the installation of a monument to the LTTE-inaugurated ‘Tamils Arise’ (Pongu Thamil), was likewise graced by senior university officials.
The result is surreal. These proceedings take place under the tolerant eye of the Sri Lankan security forces, the same forces that in 2014 stopped the Medical Students Union’s commemoration of Rajani by issuing a threat to the Dean by phone.
The same university officials, who are prominent at current ceremonies glorifying the brutal extreme of Tamil Nationalism, put on a different face when dealing with the powers that be in Colombo, by whose tolerance the University continues its course of congenial decay. Its keeping out well qualified academics in order to reinforce a closed tradition of mediocrity, is in keeping with Pongu Thamil and its cult of heroism by which the most intimate and poignant aspects of our history have been reduced to gossip. That is one reason why Rajani is anathema.
As a medical doctor in 1982, when hardly anyone else was willing, Rajani readily went in the night to nurse and save the life of Seelan, a favourite of the LTTE leader, who suffered an accidental gunshot injury (see Palmyra Fallen). About two years later in England, she learnt of the internal brutality and intolerance of the movement, and how Seelan was driven to harbour a death-wish, bitterly regretting his actions: In particular his murder of PLOTE’s Sundaram (‘who was a freedom fighter like me’) at the Leader’s behest. Seelan had remained in a marked camp in Themaratchy despite urgent entreaties to vacate and was ambushed by the Army in July 1983.
The zeal Rajani showed in helping the LTTE was transformed into a determination to go back to Jaffna University in 1986, and to challenge it by her activism: How many of our young went to their deaths, after being broken from within by the Movement’s inhuman culture, only to be celebrated as martyrs by our cynical elite? Contempt, and fear, of Rajani’s legacy is again to do with the Tamil elites’ love for the mediocrity of decadence. Her life and experience militated against purveying cheap history of an era that played havoc with our lives and emotions.
On education, one of the priorities after the war should have been to improve the outlook for students and staff by strengthening secular traditions and encouraging a free flow of scholars from around the world. But today instead, religious and political sectarianism stares us in the face in several universities, with the deceptively benevolent connivance of the State.
A political settlement has waited seventy years and will perhaps wait another seventy. But the debasement of Jaffna University is fatal to the Tamils remaining a viable community. That in my judgment is the greatest failure of the TNA, which it could easily have corrected. That goes back to the origins of Tamil Nationalism and Rajani’s unanswered questions.
The same questions were raised in the young Tamil journalist Jude Ratnam’s internationally acclaimed documentary Demons in Paradise. The reactions to it from some well-heeled young Tamils provided by BBC are revealing. Jude cannot be accused of being blind to what the Tamils have suffered from the State, but the main criticism of his work presumes that it is necessary to focus on the brutality of the Sri Lankan Army before any attempt at exploring the brutalisation of Tamil culture and its entrapment in an abyss, not allowing us to open our minds and see what the world and its heritage have to offer.
The state of society may indeed be likened to demon possession. The University is not the hub of this phenomenon. It is supported by a worldwide network of pseudo-scholarship, closely aligned to elite Tamil society.
Rajani held that the brutality of the State is secondary in relation to our internal decay and, importantly, that Tiger brutality and intolerance are fruits of the bankruptcy of the Parliamentary politics of the Tamil elite. This was not something that came to her from discussions and browsing around in comfortable surroundings. It began with the huge sacrifices she made in helping the LTTE.
Tamil Nationalism: Loss of Direction and the Fatal Betrayal
We need not waste time today trying to separate Tamil Nationalist politics from the LTTE’s legacy and the glorification of Prabhakaran. After all, politicians of the TNA (Federal Party), TNPF (Tamil Congress), Chief Minister Wigneswaran, miscellaneous academics and the mainstream Tamil media compete for ownership of this legacy. A pseudo-logical argument currently in vogue is that Chelvanayakam who had lost faith in the Sinhalese leadership, blessed the incipient militancy by garlanding Sivakumaran’s statue in Urumpirai, and therefore Prabhakaran as saviour. Rajani trashed the basis of such claims in the Broken Palmyra.
Take Sinhalese Nationalism as a political force. Its main authors were Senanayake of the transformed Ceylon National Congress and Bandaranaike’s Sinhala Maha Sabha. From the 1930s they competed tooth and nail with one another, painting apocalyptic scenarios, to deny the vote to the Plantation Tamils. Having by the grace of Governor Caldecott been in power from 1941 without holding elections, by 1946, they rightly discerned that the electoral map had shifted after the slow advance of the Left since the early 1930s. The two rivals thus formed the UNP in order not to split the Sinhalese nationalist vote.
The 1947 Parliamentary elections brought in a minority UNP government which had won 42 of the 95 contested seats and might have not survived, but for divisions in the Left and British support behind the scenes – apart from the tame votes of the 5 appointed MPs, 4 Englishmen and a Burgher. With a view to consolidate its tenuous hold, the first two major Bills after independence in February 1948 were anti-labour, the Trade Unions (Amendment) Bill of June and the Citizenship Bill against the estate labour in August.
Senanayake discerned that the successful execution of these Bills involved getting the Tamil Congress (TC) with seven MPs to support the Government. G.G. Ponnambalam fell for the bait of a proffered cabinet portfolio. The Trade Unions Bill was to be the test run for the larger prize. What it sought to do was to weaken the unions by reversing the process in Britain. The British Act of 1927 placed several restrictions on affiliation and federation of unions of government servants. Ceylon’s Act of 1935 followed the British Act. In 1946, the Labour government repealed the 1927 British Act. The Ceylon Government in 1948 moved to tighten the screw further on affiliation and federation in a new Act.
G.G. Ponnambalam’s closing words in the debate were, “I shudder to think of the possibilities when, if collective political objectives are granted, they can become a willing or unwilling instrument of totalitarianism in this country.” It was an invocation of the Communist Bogey. The Tamil Congress, including Chelvanayakam, voted with the Government on the Trade Unions Bill. It was Chelvanayakam’s first and major political blunder. The two Tamils who actively opposed the Bill were Somasundaram Nadesan and E.M.V. Naganathan, in the Senate.
The cost to the Tamils was enormous, when the Tamil Congress pitted itself against the constellation of the most enlightened and sympathetic Sinhalese MPs of all time. Senanayake gave Ponnambalam his portfolio after testing his obedience in the Citizenship Bill.
The record suggests that in order to save his political skin over the Citizenship Bill (20 Aug.), Ponnambalam improperly secured censorship of the Hansard publishing the list of votes by name. One infers that the arrangement was for Tamil Congress MPs to stay in the sidelines away from the debating chamber. Chelvanayakam, for whom it was a question of the heart, broke ranks and spoke and voted against the Citizenship Bill. Although silent, Ponnambalam felt constrained to accompany Chelvanayakam and to also vote against the Bill. It passed 53 for and 35 against. There would have been 40 against, but for the absence of five Tamil Congress MPs. An enterprising journalist revealed how the MPs had voted in the Times of 21st August. In the Senate, Nadesan and Naganathan voted against the Bill. By 2nd September, Ponnambalam had been made Minister.
The Citizenship Act, the greatest blow to the minorities, could have been either stopped or made costly for the Government to proceed with, had the Tamil Congress shown determined resistance. Having pledged the Plantation Tamils that he would stand up for them, Ponnambalam with his powerful intellect did not utter a word. Had the message been carried loud and clear by the Tamil Congress that the future of the minorities was in jeopardy, the Tamils and Muslims who voted for the Bill, including Ministers Suntheralingam and Sittampalam, would have found it a costly exercise. It was, after all, a weak government selling favours to ensure support for the Bill. The appointed MPs could have been told firmly to keep off.
In this betrayal of the Plantation Tamils, and thereby the minorities, Ponnambalam was urged on by several of the big Tamil names of that time for whom joining the Government was seen as a means of protecting the position of Tamils in government service. Among them were Senators A.B. Rajendra and Chellappah Coomaraswamy. A.J. Wilson in his biography of Chelvanayakam gives several names of prominent Tamils who wanted the Tamil Congress to cooperate with the Government. Among these Tamils were Handy Perinpanayagam and K. Nesiah of the Youth Congress; which appears to have been largely silent on the plight of Plantation Tamils although it was a leading issue during the Donoughmore era.
The greatness of Chelvanayakam lies in his standing by the Plantation Tamils despite the taunts of his own circle of elite Tamils. He would have been terribly isolated if not for Naganathan and the scholarly backing of Nadesan. The relations between the three are an area that remains unexplored. In that phase where the Tamil leadership failed dismally, why Chelvanayakam failed to take the battle into his own hands and move forward, cries for explanation.
The Tamils were thus betrayed by their own elite with its overblown sense of importance. That is hard to swallow and the obsession with finding traitors to blame for our losses has left us with the likeness of demon possession and an ill-disguised satisfaction in the vicarious killing of dissent. The tremendous violations by the Sri Lankan forces, for the sake of the country, require a thorough and credible judicial inquiry; but remember that those who knowingly start a war must bear primary responsibility. All wars in this country from October 1987 were needlessly begun by the LTTE to get control, not over the Sinhalese, but over fellow Tamils, regardless of the accompanying losses in land, human and other assets. Among the poorest, the feeling of loss was compounded by the Government’s neglect of prompt resettlement.
By the beginning of 2009 it was clear to most Tamils which way the civilians wanted to escape in the face of the Army advance, and that the LTTE was killing Tamil escapees. Yet many leading Tamils and TNA leaders kept blaming the Army exclusively for the suffering of Tamils. How little things had changed over 20 years. Rajani described the Indian Army’s massacre at Jaffna Hospital on 21st October 1987:
“The Tigers were there: maybe it was a deliberate ploy on the part of the LTTE. They came in two lots. When the doctors had pleaded with them to leave, the Tigers went away only after firing some rounds widely and leaving some weapons inside. The Indian army came an hour or so later, at which time there was no retaliatory fire.”
To start a war is to play with chaos and murder. There is a limit to which you could blame a soldier on the frontline fighting a war not of his choosing. Those who sustain a war by lies and propaganda, and make the lot of their own people insufferable, are the ones most worthy of blame. That is why the accusations of partiality against Jude Ratnam’s Demons in Paradise have a sinister ring.
Natesa Iyer, one of the great men we were fortunate to have among us, after witnessing the hapless plight of the Plantation Tamils for nearly 20 years, became convinced of the pointlessness of relying on the British or the Indian Government to settle the issue. He averred that they could only resolve the issue by talking to the Sinhalese. Several Kandyan leaders, including Bernard Aluwihare and Senerat Gunawardana held him in high respect, and even after his death in 1947, his hopes were not disappointed. Several Sinhalese MPs who had the interests of the Kandyan peasantry at heart voted against the Citizenship Bill, which sought to deny citizenship to the Plantation Tamils. They included T.B. Subasinghe, T.B. Ilangaratne, H. Sri Nissanka, N.M. Perera, Robert Gunawardena, Kusuma Gunawardena, R.S. Pelpola and I.M.R.A. Iriyagolla. They had to overcome the legacy of hate spawned by Senanayake and Bandaranaike.
It was the Tamil Nationalists who spurned potential Sinhalese allies and isolated themselves by aligning with the Sinhalese Right over the 1948 Trade Unions Bill. We Tamils have gone to the West, to New Delhi and Geneva in search of a settlement that eludes us. Is it not time to look to the Sinhalese through different eyes? That would be something close to the heart of Rajani.
SJ / September 21, 2018
“The Tamil Congress, including Chelvanayakam, voted with the Government on the Trade Unions Bill. It was Chelvanayakam’s first and major political blunder.”
*
How can it be a blunder when the bill coincided with his class interests?
He opposed the nationalization of the airbase in Katunayake, naval base in Trincomalee and the Colombo harbour. He sided with the oil companies that were nationalized by the SLFP government in 1961.
The FP bitterly opposed the left for reasons of electoral politics and class interest.
*
Rajini T referred to “anti-democratic tendencies within the community”.
These tendencies were an inalienable part of the Tamil nationalist project especially since 1972; and she was a strong sympathiser of the LTTE when its anti-democratic nature was all too clear.
Saying this is not to negate her positive contributions, but to have a clearer picture of the political scenario.
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Native Vedda / September 21, 2018
SJ
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Whether Chelvanayakam was right or wrong in opposing nationalisation of airbase in Katunayake, naval base in Trincomalee and the Colombo harbour on its own merit he was wrong to oppose the weeping widow led SLFP government’s actions, misadventure, stupidity, racism, bigotry, ………………….
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SLFP and the weeping widow could do no wrong.
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Anonymous / September 21, 2018
Tamil politicians are too busy colluding with the government to protect all the criminals…
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Sinhala_Man / September 21, 2018
What I see now are only Dr Rajan Hoole’s serious essay and SJ’s comment on it. I hope that those who are more familiar with the politics of the North will take the time to study this article carefully, and discuss it objectively.
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Two passages, in particular seem to be significant:
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“To start a war is to play with chaos and murder. There is a limit to which you could blame a soldier on the frontline fighting a war not of his choosing. Those who sustain a war by lies and propaganda, and make the lot of their own people insufferable, are the ones most worthy of blame.”
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And:
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“Several Sinhalese MPs who had the interests of the Kandyan peasantry at heart voted against the Citizenship Bill, which sought to deny citizenship to the Plantation Tamils.”
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A thoughtful article to which I must return.
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Ratnam Nadarajah / September 22, 2018
Its indeed a paradox that while Dr Hoole is trying to expose the double standards of Tamil leadership; through the annals of history sadly majority of the comments seems to diverge and dilute the real issue
. As one old Tamil gentleman told me while waiting on the platform of Fort Railway station” Thumbi , sinhalaman won’t eliminate us Tamils but our own will, mark my words”. This was way back in 1971
Has anything changed . No is the sad answer.
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Sinhala_Man / September 23, 2018
Dear Ratnam Nadarajah and Lone Wolf,
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You are both level-headed people who make very sane comments. As for Rajan Hoole, he must be regarded by all Sri Lankans as one of the greatest human beings produced by our country.
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Dear Lone Wolf, yes, those Maldivian elections are very important, and I was hoping that Prof. Jeevan Hoole, always courageous and honest, but sometimes given to going off at a tangent (he’s improved recently in that regard), well, I was hoping that he would have gone off to the Maldives. However, I have seen no updates on the Maldives, where voting ought already to have begun; instead I see this, which I had seen yesterday:
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https://maldivesindependent.com/politics/maldives-election-in-doubt-after-police-bribery-raid-141426
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I see, strangely, another article (looks good) by Prof. Jeevan Hoole:
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https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/applying-toynbees-challenge-response-to-the-genocide-of-ceylon-tamils/comment-page-1/#comment-2211319
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I’ve re-read this article by Rajan many times now. I’m daunted by its quality; how can I match his writing?
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If those problems are solved, there’ll be peace for the Maldives, for a decade at least. No country can expect more in today’s chaotic world. However, “Anni” Mohamed Nasheed must be accounted one of the best leaders anywhere in the world, for all that his nation is so tiny – relative to almost all others in the world.
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Tell me, Lone Wolf, why are human populations increasing so fast? Now, now, I’m asking questions which none can convincingly answer.
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And it may be that I’m saying things which few can understand. After all, Anni is not even a candidate. But the answers are all there on the Internet, gentle Lone Wolf!
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https://raajje.mv/en/news/37261
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That’s another site that I’ve looked at, with no update this morning. By the time that you see this, it may be that there will be.
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Lone Wolf / September 22, 2018
Sinhala_Man,
¤
“A thoughtful article to which I must return.”
¤
Please do.Your contributions are always welcome.
¤
Let us see what happens tomorrow in the Maldives.
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Paramanathan K / September 21, 2018
Tamil elites were always kept silent. None spoke against the atrocities carried out by the so-called movements during the heights of the war. Their silence continued forever, no one ever raised their voice against the murders of Dr.Rajani, Amirthalingham, Neelan, Dharmalingam, and the list is endless. The misery continued unabated in different forms of brutal acts of violence, mainly on the poor people who didn’t have the resources even for three-times meals from the North and East. But the elite made one thing certain, to settle their families in a developed country like Canada, the UK, USA, and Europe of the luxurious abode of Western life. But alas for the poor to travel by ad-hoc boats to India whilst the rest of the population suffered in the battlefields and the bunkers.
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Barathan / September 21, 2018
Param.K
Tamils were KEPT silent? By whom?
Everyone is good at making morals for others. While revealing your identity did you throw the first stone against the happenings which you condemn now in the comfort of post war safety? Have you remained in the country or traveled to India in a boat, on principle? If honesty is seen in your reply, the readership would see the mark of leadership in you.
But, if so, as Jesus asked where was this wine all the while and why was it not served earlier?
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Real Siva Sankaran Sharma / September 22, 2018
Mr. K. Paramanthan . Most of the Tamils who migrated to the west are not from the elite but ordinary middle class Tamils and peasants who faced the brunt of Sinhalese racism and fled. You mean to state that out of a population of 3.2 million indigenous Sri Lankan Tamils , around 1 million were elite! The elite also sent their children but they are a miniscule minority and most of their children hobnob with the Sinhalese elite and not with the Tamil diaspora, as they still feel they are something special and superior. Only the very poor jumped on boats and moved to India, anyone with even some wealth or resource did not want to go to India, as they knew what their plight will be , A life of misery and poverty in a refugee camp with no future, denied any advancement or even citizenship. Even the more resourceful ones from these camps, manged to find a way to smuggle themselves out of these camps in India and move to the west. However I do agree with you that the Tamil elite, especially the ones living in Colombo sold the ordinary Tamils to the Sinhalese from the time of independence or even before. They never cared and still do not care, as they are above this due to their wealth, influence and many heavily intermarried into many powerful Sinhalese families. Their business and other interests are also paramount to them than the just rights of the ordinary Tamils. One of the Tamil government ministers who belongs to this group, once treated the ordinary Tamil peasants in the Vanni who were crying and complaining to him regarding their confiscated lands with disdain . He had not empathy or sympathy for these peoples plight. If these so called Tamil elite had been tough from the very beginning from the time of independence or even before with Tamil rights to the British and then to the Sinhalese, Tamils will not be in this position.
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Uthungan / September 23, 2018
RSSS
The incident involving one of the government’s Tamil Minister you mention was in fact televised throughout the entire country and abroad, not long ago.
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Ajay / September 21, 2018
In mid 1980s there was a meeting organized by Tamils, some progressive Sinhalese, and HR and civil society groups in Colombo over the rise of Tamil militancy and state oppression in the north. A few foreign diplomatic staff stationed in Colombo also attended. After the speeches were over, the floor was opened for discussion. An official of the US embassy raised the issue of the ideology of the Tamil liberation struggle. He wanted to know if it was going to be a “left” struggle like that of the JVP.. A Tamil doctor quickly got up to answer. He was an acquaintance of mine and I knew he was brash and cocky. So I was not surprised when he sprung up. He said,
“I can assure you, we Jaffna people are capitalists through and through. If for some reason capitalism completely collapses, and all capitalists in the world are destroyed leaving only one standing, you can bet it will be a Jaffna man.” I was left wondering, if all the excellent fish that the Jaffna Tamils ate abundantly had inflated their brains and made them too smart for their own good.
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SJ / September 21, 2018
Ajay
Well into the 1970s, some of the best ideologists of the left movement were from the North.
The Jaffna Youth Congress was a pioneer in progressive and anti-colonial thinking.
What happened since the 1970s is tragic. Tamil nationalism pinned its faith in the West and later India.
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justice / September 21, 2018
Ponnambalam sold the Tamils for a cabinet post.
All Tamils know this but do not speak much about it.
This is how one man’s avarice sold out an entire nation.
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SJ / September 21, 2018
J
What about the other leaders who sold the Tamils for a song?
Nobody talks much about that either.
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Kettikaran / September 22, 2018
I am no particular fan of GGP although Kumar was my close friend.
GGP had made sufficient money to be free of rackets in profiting from
a Trawler tender. In addition his family had immense wealth in Malaysia. Those were times where Ministers were honourable men – mostly leading lawyers. But he was full of pride and swollen headed like many other leaders of that time. Men like SJVC being the exception. To allege he sold the Tamil nation is taking it too far.
Kettikaran
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Native Vedda / September 23, 2018
Kettikaran
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Please bear with SJ.
For him only the weeping widow Siri Mao could do no wrong or Mao could do no wrong, or Pol Pot could do no wrong.
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sach / September 21, 2018
LTTE is a product of Tamil chauvinism. There is something wrong in Tamil nationalism which is built on an imagined Tamil superiority over others.
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Anpu / September 21, 2018
TG
” Without the Sinhala Only, the Tiger may have remained unborn. Without the Black July, the Tiger may not have grown exponentially. If the B-C Pact and the D-C Pact did not miscarry (thanks to the midwifery of Sinhala extremism), the LTTE, even if it was born, would have remained a fringe group.”
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sach / September 21, 2018
Still LTTE would be born because of Tamil Nationalism
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Native Vedda / September 22, 2018
sach
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“Still LTTE would be born because of Tamil Nationalism”
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Were you stillborn or born brain-dead?
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sach / September 22, 2018
Why? Did I hurt your feelings by saying truth?
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Native Vedda / September 23, 2018
sach the stupid
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“Did I hurt your feelings by saying truth?”
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What truth has got to do with racist like you or stupid like you or fascist like you?
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JD / September 22, 2018
LTTE became a waste because, B?alasingham became CIA agent worked against India. When they were losing the war, Balasingham said one thing and Pabakaran said another about Rajiv Gandhi.
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Real Siva Sankaran Sharma / September 22, 2018
The LTTE is a by product state sponsored Sinhalese chauvinism and racism that was based on a myth called the Mahavamsa, that Sinhalese are truly indigenous, Aryans and superior. The Tamils, Dravidians inferior and outsiders, which was far from the truth. The Sinhalese were not indigenous, Aryans or superior and Tamils were not inferior or outsiders, in fact the vast majority of the Sinhalese are descended from the so called Tamil outsiders. This state sponsored Sinhalese chauvinism coupled with the opportunistic sell out of the ordinary Tamils by the so call elite Tamil leaders largely based in Colombo 7 , 3 & 4 made life hell for the ordinary Tamils . This is why the LTTE was born . Tamil nationalism in the island is based on the fight for justice for the island’ s Tamils in their own land and not on any superiority to lord over others and steal their lands, whilst Sinhalese nationalism and state sponsored genocide of the island’s Tamils that is still going on is based racism , superiority, envy and insecurity all fed by nasty evil Buddhist monks, who really do not know what Buddhism means , evil opportunistic nasty Sinhalese politicians, many of them of recent Tamil ancestry but conveniently forget this and beat the Aryan Sinhalese Buddhist drum. The Sinhalese elite, establishment and armed forces/police. All fed on this Mahavamsa myth of ingrained entitlement and racist lies of superiority that was preached by no other than a gay low caste Catholic who converted to Buddhism , whose ancestors belonged to a caste that had very recent low caste Indian Tamil immigrant origin. Yet he preached about the superior Sinhalese Buddhist Aryan( sic) and the inferior Dravidian Tamil, that was avidly listened to and absorbed by a dumb stupid population and they created all this chaos. All based on a lie and a myth.
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sinhalese buddhist / September 21, 2018
When it comes to materialism, it does not matter if you are Tamil or Sinhalese. Look at the wheelers and dealers in Colombo – all ethnic groups are represented, and often Tamil and Muslims are at the forefront. The government consults and colludes with these – often illegally – so the politicians can get a cut from the profits of nefarious capitalist projects. It does not matter whence the funds come, China, US, India – it will be divvied up among the politicians and businessmen.
It is convenient for Tamil elites to stoke ethnic hatred from their comfortable abodes in the West or fancy districts of Colombo; but the suicide bombers were primarily poor, low-caste women from the Vanni, and the fighters primarily low-casts as well.
Now the Tamil elites are trying to hang on to their ill-gotten financial might and political influence by re-stoking nationalism among a generation too young to have comprehended the facts and history of the war. For if there is peace on the island, the elite Tamils – especially those living in the West – would lose control over their influence and the financial and political networks they have built in the West, thus leading them to lose the ill-gotten financial spoils of war.
Shame, shame, shame!
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Eagle Eye / September 21, 2018
Demalu in the Central part of the country were brought by British as indentured labor to work in tea plantations. Yapanaya Demalu were also brought as indentured labor by Portuguese to work in tobacco plantations. Yapanaya Demalu were categorized as ‘Malabaris’ by British until a Demala guy in the Census and Statistics Department changed the name to ‘Ceylon Tamils’ during British period. They managed to get this done by licking the a#s of ‘Para Suddas. Because of this move the Citizenship Act applied only to Demalu brought by British for plantations in the Central Part of the country although Yapanaya Demalu were also indentured labor brought by Portuguese.
All this time the successive Governments have paid too much attention to Yapanaya Demalu and neglected tea plantation workers although their contribution to the economy is huge. From now on Government should put more resources to improve the living condition of Demalu who work in tea plantations instead of giving in to the demands of Demalu in the North.
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Anpu / September 21, 2018
Learn history.
The Salagamas trace their roots back to the Coromandel Coast of South India, and settled in the southern coastal areas of Sri Lanka. Like the other coastel castes such as the Karavas and Duravas, the Salagamas migrated to Sri Lanka between 13th to 18th century.
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Eagle Eye / September 22, 2018
Anpu,
These people learnt Sinhala and became part of the Sinhala community while Yapanaya Demalu wanted to live in a different world although they settled down in Sinhale. That is the root cause of the problem. Ordinary Demalu in Yapanaya want to learn Sinhala but Wellala politicians do not want that to happen.
I visited a school in Puttur for the opening ceremony of a library provided by Sinhala Buddhists. That school has requested a teacher to teach Sinhala but the Wellala controlled PC has refused to give a teacher. I understand that PC is putting pressure to change the name of the school named after a Buddhist monk who started it for low caste children. Are these politicians serious about reconciliation?
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Anpu / September 22, 2018
Dr G.C. Mendis “there is sufficient evidence that in the early centuries of the Christian era, the Dravidians helped to form the Sinhala race. — It is difficult to gauge the extent of Tamil blood in the Sinhalese but there is no doubt that it is considerable”
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Real Siva Sankaran Sharma / September 22, 2018
Anpu until the 4AD it was the Tamils who were the backbone of the island’s society, it is only after this time that many of them got engulfed in the Sinhalese Buddhist identity that was being formed in the South of the island . Almost 90% of the South Indian invaders and immigrants from ancient to recent got assimilated into the Sinhalese identity and not into the Sri Lankan Tamil identity, as all this invasions and immigration were concentrated in the southern central and north central areas and not in the north or east.
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Eagle Eye / September 22, 2018
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2/
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Anpu / September 22, 2018
Eagle Eye
Learn history and good habits as well.
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Eagle Eye / September 22, 2018
Anpu,
I know the history. The historian you mentioned distorted the history of Sinhale. We have dumped his history books to the dust bin.
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Native Vedda / September 23, 2018
Eagle Blind Eye
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“I know the history. “
–
Tell us all the history you know and it won’t take more than two minutes.
Your time starts now.
/
Native Vedda / September 23, 2018
Eagle Blind Eye
–
Brilliant.
/
Kettikaran / September 25, 2018
Eagle Eye
If you and your ilk in the Sinhala side get some sadistic pleasure in calling the Tamils insultingly, in Sinhala that is, as Demalu no sensible Tamil person is going to object. There are many mentally deranged like you everywhere. This is only is an expression of your low uncouth culture. Any well brought up Sinhalese – and there are millions of them – would prefer the more polite Demala minissu. I hope you have the decency to all Tamils for your unwarranted discourtesy.
Kettikaran
/
Sri-Krish / September 21, 2018
What happened has happened and not even God can change the past,.But we have to learn from history.
First lesson is privileged(I do not want to use Marxist terminology) groups get together irrespective of racial or religious difference and nationalism is secondary to protecting their privileges.
The second lesson is that foreign interventions usually aggravates internal problems,
it is prudent if problems are solved internally however time consuming it may take.
I could take several examples to support my hypothesis..
The citizenship issues were solved amicably and now we have the upcountry Tamils own land and houses and some of them holding important ministerial portfolios in the Provincial Councils and are making important achievement in educational fields.
There is hardly any one in Sri Lanka opposing Sinhala and Tamils as official languages and all political parties and religious leaders among the majority community supports 13A as it is.
I could elaborate on this.But time and space are immediate constraints
,
.
/
Kettikaran / September 21, 2018
…..”All wars in this country from October 1987 were needlessly begun by the LTTE to get control, not over the Sinhalese, but over fellow Tamils, regardless of the accompanying losses in land, human and other assets…”
Many Tamils are convinced the politically untested LTTE took the Tamil nation into an unnecessary war that was unwinnable – Balasingham’s learning included. Rajan Hoole cannot be faulted for this frame of thinking. Reckless romanticism by a few committed young men brought horrendous suffering to millions of Lankan Tamils for 3 decades. Even Karunanidhi and MGR jumped ship at the right time and were to harvest much in fortunes in their own political careers. Pragmatism, one might say is an essential feature in politics.
“Is it not time to look to the Sinhalese through different eyes? . ..” If the once
rabid racist Ven. Sobita Thero (late) was wise to do some hard thinking later why not the Tamils. In fairness to Sampanthan and friends they seem to agree with this line of thought although the Tamil extreme vilify them 24×7 for this. Many are firmly convinced the Sinhalese and Tamils – who began the conflict – should now come forward to talk and settle it among themselves with much give and take from both sides . To use cricket parlance – it looks doable.
Kettikaran
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Barathan / September 22, 2018
It’s time we Tamils do a total reversal of our approaches and strategies which have taken us for almost a century only to bottomless perdition. The loss in ethnic strength through depletion in numbers of 40%, first through citizenship laws and later by forcible emigration, has simply destroyed Tamilian capacity even to muster cadres for combat. What has happened is known to the rational mind as simply irreversible.
Narendra Modi getting into cohorts with Mahinda Rajapakse is the latest reversal for the Tamil side. Through erratic inaction the latter has worked this out.
The country is reaching the centennial of the departure of Sir Ponnanbalam Arunachalam – Founder of Ceylon National Congress; precursor to the UNP – in complete conviction about the coming exclusion of Tamils. Its about time to conclude our thinking on our powerlessness to be and to plumb new ground.
Today what do we have to throw away? Not even a few portfolios. Only the hapless Office of Leader of the Opposition.
/
Agnos / September 22, 2018
“Narendra Modi getting into cohorts with Mahinda Rajapakse is the latest reversal for the Tamil side. Through erratic inaction the latter has worked this out.”
I think you yourself, in your comments on CT, had high hopes for Modi to do something for Tamils, but I had no such illusions. India is a vast country and the attentions of their politicians are often drawn to other issues. The Tamil issue barely registers at the Center, except that their fears of SL playing China against them will drive them to take advantage of the plight of Tamils for their own ends. Even among people in Tamil Nadu, sympathy for SL Tamils has been limited to the more nationalistic segments; it was at its peak in the immediate aftermath of 1983, but Tamil leadership failed to capitalize on that sympathy to extract an optimal solution and things have gone only downhill since then.
With Sampanthan aging and CVW getting bogged down in intra-party fights and hot air, or wrongly assuming his Hindu credentials would make Modi support him, who are the Tamil leaders who can make the right strategic decisions concerning our relationship with India? I think there has always been a leadership vacuum among Tamils, but it has become much worse now.
By the way, “cohorts with” doesn’t make sense to me. You probably meant “cahoots with.”
In as much as India, China, US and EU supported the GoSL’s war against the LTTE and the resulting destruction, the reparations you mentioned should come from those countries. I am not sure the UN will have any authority to take such an initiative, unless the UNHRC process leads to such an outcome, with an initiative at the UN security council.
/
Barathan / September 22, 2018
Agnos
Yes. I had high hopes on Modi, but posited on the premise that much of the initiative would come from our side. This never came to pass and there was not so much as a formulation of ‘what the Tamils wanted’. A tragic failure was the inescapable result.
You are right about “cahoots with”. The word simply did not come at that moment.
/
SJ / September 22, 2018
Agnos
You have a point in saying: “In as much as India, China, US and EU supported the GoSL’s war against the LTTE and the resulting destruction, the reparations you mentioned should come from those countries.”
Who should compensate the victims of LTTE’s misdeeds? (Will not some of the parties named above be again liable?)
/
Native Vedda / September 23, 2018
Agnos
–
SJ now bravely asks “Who should compensate the victims of LTTE’s misdeeds?” knowing full well LTTE is no longer an existential threat to the people.
–
He should demand the people who still actively support LTTE waving LTTE flag, carrying VP’s pictures and chant “our leader Prabaharan”, “we want Tamil Eelam,”, …. and TGTE, …………………… and those patriotic agents/money collectors who kept a large part of the funds for their rainy seasons, and those who are sitting on LTTE’s large investments inside and outside the island, Karuna, Pillayan, KP, ……………………. and Gota and his criminals who stole large quantities of gold and cash from vanni, …………….
–
It is funny SJ naturally being an anti Indian (perhaps a closet vellala) who never criticised LTTE because VP taught a great lesson Hindians won’t forget, ……………… used to attack UTHR(J) for its members not visibly being present at the Jaffna uni. SJ challenged them to come out and openly make all their accusation while being the sitting target of LTTE. Those who knew him well later told me how he was being selective in applying his moral standards.
–
UTHR(J) – University Teachers For Human Rights (Jaffna).
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Agnos / September 23, 2018
SJ,
Compensation will have to come from the GoSL as well–that is the the victims on all sides– since it was the GoSL that created the conditions for Tamils to become refugees fleeing to India and the West, which allowed other countries to meddle, as well as the emergence of the LTTE. The GoSL probably still hasn’t paid compensation for the loss of lives and property of Tamils during the July 1983 pogroms.
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SJ / September 24, 2018
Agnos
I am not debating the liability of the GoSL, but merely added that there are other parties that are liable, morally and otherwise.
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JD / September 22, 2018
I can not believe Kettikaran is complaining that there FAKE STRUGGLE was a mistake. I say Tamils were and are always stupid. The best thing chase out most of them and sibhalize others. Help TNA they will screw up them again.
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Kettikaran / September 25, 2018
JD – For long Turkey is trying to do to the Kurds what the current Sinhala extremists in the various regimes in recent times are doing to weaken Lankan Tamil struggle in their own and ancient land for justice and equality. The Turks, with immense resources and greater numbers have not succeeded in their genocidal quest. Tamils will survive in the long run despite the odds. Taking them for granted will be a grave error.
Kettikaran
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K.Pillai / September 21, 2018
The assassination of Joseph Pararajasingam, Raviraj, Kumar Ponnambalam, journalist Sivaram and others were politically motivated. Was the point blank shooting of 12 yo Balachandran?
Everyone will agree that Rajani was assassinated.
.
Rajan Hoole never gets tired of revisiting and revisiting the sad episode.
The Hoole sagaciously questions ~ “Is it not time to look to the Sinhalese through different eyes?”
Hoole suggest that this is one of ~ “Rajani’s Questions The Tamil Elite Have Refused To Answer”
The Sinhalese leadership saw Tamils as second class. Rajani saw this.
But some still do. What do you think Rajan?
Hoole adds ~ “That would be something close to the heart of Rajani”.
.
For several years some felt (and pointed out) that Hoole uses Rajani. Is the motivation honourable?
/
Good Student / September 22, 2018
K Pillai,
The Sinhalese leadership DO NOT see Tamils as second class. (that is yours and other fellow Tamils delusion or cheap propaganda).
The Sinhalese see Tamils as a disproportionately well to do, well educated professionally, commercially successful group whose leaders always make impossible and disproportionate demands.
And their Tamil ancestors having caused all this ill feeling by destroying the Sinhalese (Buddhist) capitals of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. That’s how the Sinhalese Buddhist capital ended up in Kandy!
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Tambimuttu / September 21, 2018
This is a thoughtful article, despite a couple of points where the author brings in extraneous issues. Overall, Dr. Rajan Hoole should be applauded.
G.G. Ponnambalam can never be forgiven for having been in a Government that introduced the racist ‘Ceylon Citizenship Bill of 1948’ and for not having opposed the legislation tooth and nail. I am not sure he even voted against the bill as reported in this article.
Regardless, G.G. Ponnambalam did vote for both the highly contentious ‘Indian and Pakistani Residents (Citizenship) Act of 1949’ and the ‘Ceylon Parliamentary Elections Amendment Act of 1949’ which followed the Ceylon Citizenship Bill of 1948. These served to disenfranchise the “Indian” Tamils. Those were the last two nails in the coffin.
G.G. Ponnambalam was a rank opportunist of the worst order. D.S. Senanayake appeared to have had a hold on him on account of the Danish trawlers tender. There were allegations of impropriety in that tender. The issue needs to be investigated by future scholars.
The disenfranchisement of the ‘Indian’ Tamils was the first of several blots in the history of Sri Lanka. The ‘Sri Lankan’ Tamils are equally to blame for that fiasco. We should never have been party to the series of legislation. Here were a people who had contributed so much to the economy of Ceylon and with whose labour the nation financed free education and free health care. G.G. Ponnambalam was a shameless demogogue and we suffer the consequences of his duplicity.
Dr. Hoole of course brings in points quite extraneous to the article when he picks an axe to grind with his mention of Jaffna university keeping out well qualified academics and the need for a ‘secular’ tradition. But lets leave those personal predelictions of his aside and commend him for an otherwise forthright article.
Thank you for your reflections, Rajan.
/
Barathan / September 22, 2018
Tambimuttu
For almost seven decades Tamils have written and spoken about GG, his moneymaking, Citizenship Laws, trawler etc. To what purpose? What profit has the community gained?
The world profited immeasurably through the Marshall Plan following WWII. Preceding that was an equal amount of US financial assistance to rebuild war devastated economies. Not to forget is W. Germany’s and later E. Germany’s enormous contribution to Israel and to Jews elsewhere.
GG’s trawler cut are a few coins contrasted to the Tamils’ war losses which are suffocating them. Why talk nonsense about these coins till eternity.
Since 2009, only one contributor to Colombo Telegraph has written twice about REPARATIONS for war affected Tamils and others. Let it be remembered that Germany’s payments have gone on for more than 65 years. Israel built up by Germany is the former’s major trading partner. From the Tamils’ leadership to follower- ship fraternity and hero worshiping multitude who is thinking about it? It boggles the mind when the stone dead past muddles the head. Let us meditate on the future and economic regeneration..
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sach / September 22, 2018
I think it was Dr.Hoole who said in a previous article that estate Tamils joined GG’s 50-50 formula and agitated against Sinhalese along with the Jaffna Tamils. And Hoole said, it prompted the Sinhala leaders into getting rid of estate Tamils or weaken them. Even a commentator here once talked about expanding their Tamil homeland joining upcountry. So when Sinhalese faced Tamil separatism in two of its provinces, isnt it a folly from Sinhalese side not to do anything about it?
Look at the racist utterances of the likes of Manoganeshan? Sinhalese are right to take action to safeguard themselves.
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Nimal Tissa Wijethunga / September 21, 2018
Let LTTE will be reborn because of Tamil Nationalism, yet they will be annihilated once again and this time very easily because of no support at all from Tamil Masses.
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Native Vedda / September 22, 2018
Nimal Tissa Wijethunga
–
“Let LTTE will be reborn because of Tamil Nationalism, yet they will be annihilated once again and this time very easily because of no support at all from Tamil Masses.”
–
If and when that happens I am not sure the Hindians are going to support and fight the war for and on behalf of whoever is ruling this island as they did from 2005 to 2009.
–
I have no cure for your delusions.
–
Hindians could support members of Rajabaksa clan again in order to destroy this island. You should consider going back to your ancestral homeland South India before Gota starts his presidential campaign in order to avoid hardship under Gota.
–
Explore possibility that if you could hitchhike free travel on a returning Kerala Gancha boat.
/
JD / September 21, 2018
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JD / September 22, 2018
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2/
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JD / September 22, 2018
Rajan Hoole: Tigers were backed by the west. IT is very common when the west creates humanitarian disasters or when they are attacking terrosit countries, they would create human massacrers and blame the opposing side. I think with the JAffna MassAcre you are still not blaming the instigzator. LTTE or two Tamil factions got caught, one being the LTTE, here.
/
RajanS / September 22, 2018
Hoole,
yes, talk to them and they will give your rights in silver platter, never mind the 70-year bitter experience that led to nothing. [edited out]
/
JD / September 22, 2018
Check ane attempts to Isolate India at the onset of the Tamil eelam war. I think one Tamil faction was paid
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JD / September 22, 2018
What ever Rajan Hoole says, Tamils should be HIndu and protestants should not be given any ground. Ponnambalam and all other Tamils worked for Hindus. chalvanayagams worked for Christians and the govt should support only the Hindus not terrorists Catholics. If needed introduce from the South some sinhala Catholics. Ban protestants as cults, anti-cultural and harmful to the civilization.
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Mallaiyuran / September 22, 2018
This is an essay written with pure ill will, hoping its timing will do the maximum damage to Tamils.
“We Tamils have gone to the West, to New Delhi and Geneva in search of a settlement that eludes us.”
Rajan Hoole, in attempt to mimic a gentleman, graciously confessing “We Tamils have gone to West”! Can Rajan Hoole say what he did from day one to Tamil get their justice only matter, to address here “We”? If we didn’t go to West, is that he proposing to go China? Is that where we the Sinhala Kathirgamars went? What a low grade dramatic game is this? Could he tell where the Old King went to seek his support against UNP? Can he tell why Sirimavo brought Sikh Army here? JR went to England to Margret Thatcher. JR went to America to Ronald Regan. Jr went to India to Rajiv Gandhi. This guy is saying “We Tamils went”. These guys are educated imbeciles, so low in common sense, have no guess of what to talk for the money they received from their masters!
His master is in UN. So Rajan Hooley wrote this to add his voice to the master’s. He plays games with words too. He is saying “eludes”, but in the tricky way. He is leaving it dishonestly to denote it is eluding because Tamils went to West. Why is he playing game? Because he started the story in 1927, then the British modified their labor law. And SJV wanted screwed up more in 1948, to do his blunder. Then, if he doesn’t play this game, how this man can make it to appear as the entire fault is on the diaspora who: “We the Tamils who went to West”.
/
Anpu / September 22, 2018
Rajan Hoole and the like were the first to go to west – Christianity.
Why did they do it?
/
Mallaiyuran / September 22, 2018
I wonder, if this guy has any idea, it was in 1915, before Britain modified its labor law, Ramanathan who went to West to get the settlement Sinhalese. (Rajan Hooley would not like to have that added diaspora’s credit, even if Ramanathan had gone because of Diaspora). Also he wants to discount “We the Sinhala Ehelepolas went to British for the settlement against Tamils in 1830s”. I have no idea how big of all these guys see them, when they start to write convoluting theories like this. These educated imbeciles seem to be not aware of it, but every child knows it, it was the Communist “NM and Colvin “wrote the 1972 Sinhala Buddhist constitution. Again Rajan Hooley baba doesn’t know that, NM and Colin did it because they wanted to cut off Tamils from going to Privy Council like Kaneswaran. Are these comedians claiming they are communist Labor Rights Champions, but not ready to condemn the communists who wrote the 1972 constitution to make sure Tamils lose all their right for employments? Such are dirties the LSSP communists. Thanks to Sinhalese, who wiped them out from the political sky.
Those who ask for International Investigation has asked the corporation of all, saying, if LTTE was the culprit then let the IC to make their decision and punish them. In fact, in the Resolution 30/1 there is a complete paragraph allocated facilitating the government to punish LTTE, though there is nothing for Tamils such like that in the entire resolution to deal with the government. Then why the government has not taken that advantage? They are cunning, not idiots like the Jaffna University Profs and so they know that is only showing the dirt on their teeth, so they wouldn’t go for it.
/
Mallaiyuran / September 22, 2018
Rajan Hooley too can be only play a nasty traitor roll to save the government, but cannot grab that opportunity, lead for an international investigation as prescribed in the way in the resolutions 30/1 and punish LTTE. Further Rajan Hooley is more than sure that his Jaffanahistory.com won’t stand up to International level if the Foreign Lawyers and judges participate in an inquiry.
It is not my intention to isolate few Coolies and blast, because the irony is, UN Expert Panel rejected the numbers submitted by the UN Country team. To tell that in simple word, the UN Country team has played a better game already than Rajan Hooley is struggling to play, i.e. justifying Lankawe with false numbers. It was not just a war manipulated by the government and its acolytes, but it is a war UN made an investigation on UN and UN found UN is guilty. (The funny thing is that is why Lankawe doesn’t want UN investigate it, because for sure, UN is going to find that Lankawe is guilty, the same way it found it was guilty.) In that condition, Rajan Hooley has to write his Jaffanahistory.com for himself and read back to him. Because, still all major players in the Resolution 30/1, is insisting for an IC collaborated investigation. (If an UN inquiry starts, unlike Hooley trying show as it is going to capitalists’ inquiry, it will include necessary reps of Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, China….. Hooley’s Leftists). Rajan Hooley has no knowledge of it but Resolution 30/1 is also signed by Russia, Cuba, China….. the non-Western Countries
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Mallaiyuran / September 22, 2018
In this essay , there is not anywhere any real discussion of what is the problem between Tamils and Sinhalese and what is the way to solve it. Though Rajani’s murder is amplified, no mention of anything Devananda did. Essay is not mentioning anywhere the sexual violence Bastiampillai introduces to control Rebels. ITJP has described how the female torturers were used by Rapist Army to sexually torture the male Tamil youths. I don’t have to write an essay of the Sinhala Army Rapists’ Psychological war behind this. It is sad, in that circumstances, a man intelligence could not go beyond, other than for a foolish claim that all the war after 1987 was to kill fellow Tamils. He is the one proclaiming that GGP is the full traitor and SJV is half traitor.
He knows, after Bastiampillai, Rapist Army found that methods as convenient & cheap weapon. Further he has completely blacked out here the JVP because to portray it was only Tamils rebelled against government, but government is completely gracious and did not deserve anything like that.
He had spent half of his essay to prove the Hindu Ponnampalam is the traitor. Then he blame Tamils has a culture of classifying traitors. Our position is here not to establish what LTTE did is right or which is not right. That has to be established by IC, by an inquiry.
Apparently Rajan Hoole is biased in his history; to preserve it never get contested, he feels the need to support the New King’s Visit to UN and came up with this peace of trash. (But still
About 300,000 estimated dead in the war. I will not spend my time with Rajani, one person, to establish any matter of the war. But let’s see if Rajan Hoole, the non-elite like to answer for the 300,000 deaths.
/
Eelam tamil patriot / September 22, 2018
@Mallayuran. are you an Elam Tamil patriot or a traitor? there are only two kinds of Tamils? Is Talaivar your only leader. there are no in between.pick your one and act accordingly. follow the path of national and spiritual leader of Tamils, Thlaivar.
but i do not see you do your duties to Tamil Eelam , ask yourself what you have done for Elam today, this week or even this month?
you act like a freeloading old fart who is waiting to benifit from our hard work and our hard earned money.
when did you last pay your dues for Tamil Eelam. it was only when pottu anna send his ass whopping squad to your houses that you fag of traitors paid up even then. Time to act now and change course, old fart.we Eelam Tamils are loosing patience.
we do not need to read old rants here. we need action. walk the talk. there is no place for traitor in Tamil Eelam。 our national leader paid the supreme sacrifice for us. Thalaivar is a lot more than even Jesus.like jesus who was crucified out of love to mankind, Thalaivar suffered inhuman torture by sinhalese genocidals who sodomised him with a hot ironrod. do you faggot think Thalaivar enjoyed that? he suffered for tamil eelam.
Tamils should follow the vision of Thalaivar. traitors should be annahilated. Tamils quest for tamil Eelam. Thalaivar is our only leader
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Mallaiyuran / September 23, 2018
Thalaivar suffered inhuman torture by sinhalese genocidals who sodomised him with a hot ironrod. do you faggot think Thalaivar enjoyed that? he suffered for tamil eelam.
Why were you standing and watching that? Why didn’t you do your duty?
Listen: Don’t use the word Patriots. That is not for Sinhalese. You Sinhalese have to use “Smart Patriots” . That is word Thero de Silva coined for you guys to use.
/
Native Vedda / September 23, 2018
Eelam tamil patriot
–
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel
-Samuel Johnson?
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Adiyaarkku adiyaal / September 22, 2018
“Fields are ploughed and sown in readiness for the earth’s renewal and the yield of her bounty.”
Hush! Let us then breath deep the air of reconciliation with God, bought through rivers of blood.
Those who raised the sword among us have died by it. Such is the law of life. Not one of your words saved us. Let us bow to God in deep humility for our collective ignorance.
Yet our high-brows sit debating years on end. Words ad nauseum- from the Sangam days- as if the whole of Tamil land is nothing but a chaththiram to erect veerakkals and for men to sit and debate all day. Tamil rhetoric and counter rhetoric- while the ship is sinking – like the old mummudihal’s battles.. Now that the fields have to be ploughed, let us quiet down, as of old. That is our way.
The burden now is financial, disabilities and our youth on the loose. The rains are hard and staggered. They inundate our crops and mow down our mango blooms.
To the desperately poor, who pay our war time debts with our kidneys, literally, arasan aandal enna, aandihal aandal enna, i.e. capitalism or socialism? Share your kool with the war widows, better, teach us some small businesses.
Give pause. If you care, rise from your armchairs. Get your feet muddy, lest we all perish.
Start us a center for entrepreneurship and fund it. Give us a few machines to try this and that. Teach us how we can value-add to the perishables we grow. Dig tube wells that we may wash away our tears and look up with hope.
Gentlemen, enough said, words only distract and dull us.
“Funded ideas.” Make this a forum for that please, scholastic Sirs.
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punchinilame / September 22, 2018
This is where to begin the march – CVW already discarded any
economic input by the State & wants political matters dealt with
first, as opposed to TNAs move wanting both directions at the same time.
Your worthy suggestion has to be funded and the diaspora is ever
willing to do so – provided a firm, efficient & HONEST organisation
is set up with strict policies and rules. The large sum handed over
by Canadians to CVW during his visit for sucha purpose has yet to see the light?
/
jim softy / September 22, 2018
Tamils are very cunning. They always talk about elite Tamils and caste system. They created this system of thinking to show that some Tamils are better than SInhalese. Actually we also have elite Sinhalese. Traditionally monks comes are part of the elite system among Sinhalese, similar to a Hindu ‘aiyar.’
We also have caste system, this is the root of our tradition in Kandy and Galle. We are proud of our caste system as this is part of our history
/
Kettikaran / September 25, 2018
Jim Softy
“We also have the caste system – that is the root of our tradition in Kandy and Galle”??? Kandy and Galle!!! You are out of your depth,
boy. Any low IQ guy knows Kandy and Galle, in a cultural sense
are two worlds apart. Ask Reginald Cooray.
As to Sinhala monks and Hindu Iyers you are talking something you do not understand. Iyers are born into Brahmin families. Did’nt you know it is totally different in the Sinhala system where any young boy can enter the monk hood.
Kettikaran
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Jeeva / September 22, 2018
Ranjani Thiranagama was personally known to me. Though she married a Sinhalese, but had Tamil nationalism in her blood. It was a mistakke for Thavalr to order the killing of Ranjani.
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Muthuthamby Jeya Shankar Raju / September 22, 2018
If Rajani were living she would have ended up in the TNA camp as a MP for sure. May she rest in peace.
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Uthungan / September 23, 2018
MJSR
“If Rajani was living she would have ended up tn the TNA camp as an MP for sure.”
I knew her father but not Rajani but had met her husband and her sister and having had contact with her friends and people associated with her work ,I most strongly reject your slanderous assertion that she would be in collaboration with the self serving Parliamentarians of the TNA if lived today.
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SJ / September 24, 2018
MJSR & U
One is free to guess in these matters, but there should be some logic.
The fact that some of Rajini T’s associates are playing ball with the FP and even defend FP politics of the past is not a sufficient basis to decide how Rajini would have acted.
/
gough whitlam / September 22, 2018
Quite unnecessarily Rajan is digging old graves. They smell bad Rajan they smell bad
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Chokka Malli / September 22, 2018
Rajan is writing about Rajani. Why? How?
/